Singapore warns of fradulent website soliciting bitcoin investments

SINGAPORE: Singapore warned members of the public on Wednesday of a fraudulent website soliciting investments in Bitcoins using fabricated comments attributed to Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Chairman, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Tharman is also the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore.

In a statement here, MAS said the website's article on Bitcoins is highly deceptive and misleading.

“The statements attributed to Tharman are completely false, apart from his observation that trading volumes in cryptocurrency are low in Singapore,” it said.

MAS highlighted that the site asks readers to sign up for a Bitcoin account and requests for credit card or bank account details.

Members of the public should exercise extreme caution and avoid providing any financial or personal information on the forms linked from the website, advised the Authority.

“Putting money in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins is highly risky,” it said.

MAS had issued an advisory on Dec 19, 2017 to warn the public of the risks of cryptocurrency investments.

Tharman had in fact stated in a reply to a Parliamentary question on Feb 5, 2018 that Singaporeans “could lose their shirts when they invest money in cryptocurrencies”.

MAS urged members of the public who suspect that an investment could be fraudulent or misused for other unlawful activities to report such cases to the police.

For more information on cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency investments, members of the public could refer to MoneySENSE's ? it is a national financial education programme for Singapore - consumer alerts. - Bernama